Mr. Penick was born in Johnson County, Missouri, August 18, 1862. His father, William B. Penick, was a Kentuckian by birth and in 1857, soon after his marriage, removed to Missouri, intending to make that state his future home. It was not long, however before the Civil war came on and Missouri became a center of contested territory, which made the situation there so unpleasant that Mr. Penick decided to leave and in 1863 returned to his native state. There he continued to make his home for seventeen years, principally engaged in the manufacture of flour. In 1880 he went to Missour, where he devoted his attention to farming in Johnson County. By this time, however, he had become interested in Texas and was a believer in its future possibiliites and development. Accordingly in 1892 he came to this state and settled at Anson, Jones County, where he has since resided, living in his later years a retired life. His wife to whom he was married in 1851, bore the maiden name of Mary E. Bailey and was also a native of Kentucky. They reared a family of six children who reached mature years.

The boyhood days of R.L. Penick were spent at his father’s home in Kentucky and he attended the district schools of the neighborhood until sixteen years of age. He then started out in life on his own account, possessing laudable ambition and strong determination. He secured employment on a neighboring farm at eight dollars per month and board, and later on, as a means of developing his business faculties, he obtained a position as clerk in a mercantile store, which pursuit he followed for a year or more. In 1880 he removed with the family to Missouri and devoted three years to work upon his father’s farm, but the spring of 1884 found him en route for Texas and after devoting a short time to investigating the merits of the western country he located at Anson, the county seat of Jones County. There for a brief period he was engaged in the hardware business on his own account but he sold out the following year for the purpose of engaging  in the cattle industry. This was at a period when cattle brought a high price on the market, but the era of free ranges was fast disappearing, the country becoming settled up by the farmer, who claimed the land and placed it under cultivation. There were some features that were favorable to the business coupled with a great many disadvantage, so that after devoting eight years to the cattle industry, in which he met with little success, Mr. Penick concluded to devote his attention to other pursuits. In 1894, he once more embarked in the hardware trade at Anson in connection with his father rand brother under the firm style of Penick & Company. R.L. Penick acted as manager of the business, which was continued up to the winter of 1899 under that name, when the Penick Hughes Company was incorporated with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars. At that time the firm opened a branch house in Albany, but after a few months it was discontinued. When Stamford was founded in 1900 the Penick Hughes Company opened its house in this city and the enterprise is now one of the largest hardware establishments, not only in Stamford, but in Western Texas. The company also owned a private banking institution which became a national bank in the spring of 1900 under the name of the First National Bank of Stamford with Mr. Penick as vice president. In a business way he is also interested in other enterprises of the city, being the president and manager of the Stamford Ice & Refrigerator Company. He is also the president of the Commercial Club of Stamford, in which position he has served since the organization of the club in 1900. He is likewise the president of the Stamford Railroad Committee and vice president of the Hardware, Implement and Vehicle Dealers’ Association of Texas. He also enjoys the distinction of having once served as head of the city government, having been elected mayor of Stamford in the spring of 1903 and acceptably filling the important position for two years.

Perhaps the greatest distinction that has been conferred upon him, and one in which he takes a justifiable pride, is in connection with Masonry. Becoming interested in the order he took his first degree in 1892, since which time he has progressed steadily through the different degrees of the fraternity until he had become a Scottish Rite Mason, belonging to the Consistory. He has likewise taken the degrees of the York Rite and is a member of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias and Woodmen fraternities.

Mr. Penick was united in marriage in 1886 to Miss Dottie L. Potts, a native of Grayson County, Texas. In their family were five children, of whom two are now living, a son and a daughter. Honored and respected in every class of society, he has for some time been a leader in thought and action in public life of Western Texas and has made a most creditable record. His life has been one of continuous activity in which has been accorded due recognition of labor and today he is numbered among the substantial citizens of his county. His interests are thoroughly always identified with those of Western Texas and he is ready to lend his aid and co-operation to any movement calculated to benefit this section of the country or advance its wonderful development.